


Somebunny to Lean On

by SillynekoRobin



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Bogo tries really hard not to be a jerkface, Comedy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Judy, Protective Nick Wilde, Savage Nick Wilde, cute Judy, post-buddy but pre-buddy cops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 09:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9432512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SillynekoRobin/pseuds/SillynekoRobin
Summary: After the Bellwether Incident, Chief Bogo finds himself in the difficult position of actually giving a darn.Or, how Bogo got his rookie back,  Judy returned to the ZPD, and a temporarily feral fox's bare rear end was recorded "for science."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the scrapped-in-production movie concept that instead of simply making mammals savage, the night howlers brought out their more complex feral instincts instead, and the corresponding idea that Nick found Judy more worthy of protecting than preying on.

* * *

“Hopps! Hopps, are you alright?”

 

Bogo stood on the ledge of a deep diorama pit, scenarios and possible courses of action stampeding through his mind as he stared down at the rabbit whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to make his more difficult.

 

“I’m okay, Chief!” Judy called up, her reply somewhat muffled. “Minor leg injury, but—”

 

“The fox, Hopps, I’m talking about the _fox!_ ” Bogo dragged a hand down his face in frustration and disbelief as the vulpine in question, literally crouched on top of Judy like a hen atop an egg, snarled up at the herd of officers that had gathered at the scene.

 

The paw that wasn’t trapped under rusty red fluff waved frantically. “Nick won’t hurt me, Chief! I know it looks like he’s gone savage, but he’s just scared. I think he’s trying to protect me. He—all the other savage mammals, they—it’s plants, toxic night howler flowers! Mayor Bellwether, she admitted it, I recorded—”

 

“So we overheard. The suspect is securely in custody,” the buffalo assured as Judy, one-handed, fumbled for the plastic carrot rolling away from her grasp. “Right now our top priority is getting you out of there and into some medical attention.” Daring to take his eyes off the situation for the barest of moments, he directed an order over his shoulder. “Someone get me a muzzle.”

 

“No!”

 

The strength of her shout instantly whipped his eyes back to the pit, prepared for the worst.

 

With a mighty squirm Judy struggled out from under the fox and limped upright, heavily favoring one leg. In a moment her arms were around the other mammal’s neck, putting her tiny face far too close to fangs still threateningly bared for Bogo’s comfort.

 

“No muzzles,” she ordered, meeting the buffalo’s eye defiantly. “I won’t allow one on him!”

 

“Hopps, for pity’s sake, you know it’s _protocol_ —”

 

Balanced on one foot, blood matting the fur of her injured leg, the tiny bunny barely trembled. Violet eyes, almost luminous in the poor museum lighting, never wavered. “ _No muzzles_.”

 

Bogo sighed deeply. “Right then. I’m afraid you leave me no choice.” As the fox’s teeth snapped on thin air, the clack of sharp canines echoing around the pit, the buffalo grabbed a gun from Higgins. “Scratch muzzle. Bring me a ladder.”

 

The discharge was punctuated almost simultaneously by a vulpine yelp of shock and pain. Bogo, best marksman in his graduating class, felt an unreasonable rush of satisfaction as the sass-fox thumped nose first to the floor a moment later, the feathers of a tranquilizer dart protruding neatly from his rump.

 

The operation proceeded rapidly after that. Ladder lowered, Bogo himself descended into the paneled pit. Heaven help him but that little hopping harbinger of chaos was _his_ rookie, even if she no longer wore a badge or ZPD stripes. Something he intended to set straight when this mess was sorted out.

 

Even injured, Judy was going a mile a minute. “If it’s caused by plants, there has to be a cure! We’ll need a team of botanists. I’ll call my family, they can tell us what they did when Uncle Terry ate—”

 

“The only thing you’re going to do is sit quietly in an ambulance, for the time being.” Unconscious fox slung over a broad shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Hopps tucked firmly in the crook of one arm, Bogo climbed carefully with the other. “We’ll send an officer to the hospital for your official statement once you’ve received treatment.”

 

The rabbit’s ears slowly fell. “Oh. Right. Of course. Because I’m… I’m not on the force anymore…” She let herself be handed off, gently as Bogo could manage, to a waiting EMT.

 

After a moment of hesitation, Bogo pulled the limp fox off his shoulder and laid him on the gurney next to Judy, ignoring the quizzical look of the mare medic. It wasn’t like there was a lack of room. Judy immediately pulled his head into her lap, flashing Bogo a grateful look as they were wheeled away to the ambulance outside.

 

It was with unusual reluctance that Bogo looked away and back to the shocking case at hand.

 

Obviously he was going soft.

\- // - // - // - // -

 

In the end he wound up going to the hospital in person. After all, he rationalized, he was the chief of police. Cracking the biggest case in Zootopia’s history required the utmost attention to detail. It was his duty to see to things personally.

 

An entire wing of the Savannah Square General Hospital had been converted for the observation and treatment of the mammals afflicted with “savagery,” and it was with no surprise that Bogo found Judy there. He was also unsurprised to find that she had set up camp not outside the fox’s room near the wide observation window, but inside it.

 

The rabbit was dozing in a chair beside the hospital bed where the fox, still deeply asleep, was curled. Her injured leg, now bandaged, was extended gingerly in front of her. In her lap lay an open magazine boasting the tagline “Pest-Deterring Flora and You!” over a splash of purple flowers.

 

“She’ll be just fine.”

 

A voice from down the hall caught Bogo off guard. He started as a porcupine in a lab coat rattled up next to his leg.

 

“Officer Hopps said someone would be coming by from the station, but I didn’t expect the chief of police. Good to meet you. I’m Dr. Sharpe.”

 

He bent to shake the proffered paw. “How is sh—the situation?”

 

Her quills rustled knowingly. “Don’t worry about a thing. The laceration on her leg is deep, but no muscle damage. A few stitches, some time off her feet, and she’ll be back to chasing down criminals before you know it.”

 

Bogo let out a silent breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Lameness—the worst fear of a rabbit, and indeed any mammal whose body and lineage bent toward speed. It lifted a weight to know that Judy would be spared.

 

“Ms. Hopps resigned from the ZPD, actually,” was all he said.

 

The porcupine blinked, riffling through her clipboard. “I see. Well, that’s certainly a shame.”

 

Hands clasped behind his back, Bogo faced the window once more. He regarded the ball of coppery red near the cot’s pillow. “What about the fox? How is he?”

 

“His vitals are normal, for a mammal his size who was hit with a tranq meant for megafauna.” She shot him a look over rounded spectacles. “I expect he’ll be up and about by morning, if not in his right mind until we’re able to reproduce the night howler antidote. The pharmacists downstairs are working on it as we speak.”

 

The fox—Nick, Judy had called him—twitched an ear. The tip of his tail shifted to cover his tiny black nose; a completely unnatural sleeping position. Or entirely natural, depending on how far back the evolutionary ladder one cared to go. Deceptively harmless in unconsciousness.

 

“So, Doctor.” Bogo gestured at the slumbering pair. “Fox; bunny. Predator; prey. Why didn’t he go for her throat when that juice hit him? Allegedly that was the perp’s intention.”

 

Sharpe sighed, rubbing under her glasses tiredly. “Seems like a miracle, doesn’t it? But if Officer—ah, Ms. Hopps is right, then these mammals that were targeted didn’t really go savage. They went _primitive_. Maybe the others reacted violently because they were frightened and the shot of the serum pellet was shocking and painful. But Mr. Wilde here… his first instinct, apparently, was to protect his friend. She must mean a lot to him.”

 

There were teams on the force that had been paired for years and still wouldn’t have thrown themselves over their partners like this fox, this petty hustler, had done without even pausing to think about it. Without even being _able_ to think about it.

 

Wonders never cease.

 

Inside the dim, quiet room, the magazine fell to the floor with a swish and flap as the rabbit stirred, stretching her uninjured leg. Violet eyes blinked open slowly, sliding first to the occupant of the bed, then past to the watchers at the window. Her ears perked instantly in salute.

 

“Chief!” Sliding stiffly out of the chair, Judy hop-limped to the door and into the hallway. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

 

“How are you feeling?” Dr. Sharpe asked before Bogo was forced to think up a plausible explanation.

 

“Much better, thank you. I can barely feel it at all.”

 

Bogo snorted, rolling his eyes at the rabbit’s unrelenting peppiness. “Those are some top notch painkillers, then.”

 

Sharpe chuckled, jotting a note into her file. “Good. Let me know if things change. If you need anything, or Mr. Wilde wakes up, just flag down myself or one of the nurses.” She shuffled away with a soothing rustle of quills and papers.

 

“You came for my statement, Chief?” Judy asked then, his sarcasm having seemed to sail right over the tops of her perky ears.

 

“Yes. We’ll make it brief; I’m sure you’re eager to get home and get some proper rest.”

 

She shifted awkwardly. “Oh, I’m actually staying here tonight. Nick will probably be pretty confused when he wakes up, so I thought it might be better if I was with him. And, well…” Her ears drooped slightly but she soldiered on, determinedly matter-of-fact. “I don’t have a home in Zootopia to go back to. I broke the lease on my apartment when I moved back to Bunnyborough.”

 

“I see.” The buffalo cleared his throat. “Hopps, listen. About that—”

 

“Oh!” Judy’s ears perked suddenly. One paw disappeared into her shirt pocket. “You forgot this earlier, and I was so preoccupied with Nick that I forgot to give it to you. Sorry for withholding evidence.” The plastic carrot appeared as if by magic.

 

A bunny magician was supposed to pull carrots out of hats, wasn’t it? Or was that just another speciesist cliché?

 

Bogo accepted the small recording device containing Bellwether’s large admission of guilt very carefully between the tips of two fingers. Apparently even that wasn’t quite gentle enough. He felt a button compress under his thumb.

 

“— _dumb bunny. —dumb bunny. —dumb bunny_.”

 

Ears stiff with shock, the rabbit snatched it back and clicked it firmly off. Nose pink with embarrassment, she flashed a fake smile that showed brilliantly white buck teeth. “A-hahaha! You can just… ignore that, maybe?”

 

“… ignore what.”

 

Obviously he was going soft.

\- // - // - // - // -

 

The next morning found Bogo back at Savannah Square General, a file folder in one hand and a small paper sack in the other. If the chief of police wanted to check in on the progress of the antitoxin that would cure more than a dozen victims-cum-key witnesses to the Bellwether case, that was his business.

 

Deep, raucous laughter heralded his arrival to the special cases wing.

 

A small fennec fox howled with mirth outside Nick Wilde’s room. “Aw man, this is priceless! You can’t pay for stuff this good!” He was holding a camcorder.

 

“You’re not helping, Finnick!” Judy yelled from inside the room, shooting a glare out the observation window before turning back to the bed. “Nicholas Wilde, you are in a hospital, not a… a naturalist club. You put these back on right now.” In the paw that wasn’t shielding her eyes, she held the fox’s pants.

 

“Do I dare ask?” Bogo rumbled as he came to a stop by the window.

  
Weak with laughter, the small, sandy-pelted fox could only lean against Bogo’s lower leg and gesture wildly. “Oh—oh mah gawd! This is going straight on Zootube!”

 

“Welcome back, Chief.” With a swish of quills, Dr. Sharpe ambled over from the nurses’ station. “What you’re witnessing is the play behavior of a primitive red fox, unrestrained and unchanged by millennia, seen in person by science and medicine for the first time. It’s astounding!”

 

Behind the glass, a very nude Wilde darted out from under the hospital bed on all fours and skidded to a stop. His tail windmilled in wild circles as he whirled to face Judy, ears swiveling like satellite dishes. At some unspoken signal he gave a short, wordless bark and leapt into the air, easily twice his standing height directly vertical. He came down on the mattress on his front paws, snowy white sheets drifting up in a plume around himself and the helplessly blushing, laughing bunny.

 

Bogo’s ear twitched without his permission. “Astounding. Quite.”

 

“So much of what we know about our ancient mammalian ancestors is only speculation. We’re learning so much from these observations! Case in point: that our primitive genetic links most assuredly did not wear clothing at this point in the evolutionary line is no longer up for debate.”

 

Well, that answered the question of whether or not the night howler antidote was ready. So much for that. However, Bogo was a patient mammal. He could wait.

 

Moving on to the next order of business…

 

The fennec having finally disengaged from his leg, Bogo stepped up to the window and rapped at it brusquely. “Hopps. A moment?”

 

The fox, still firmly of the quadruped persuasion, followed her to the window with a concerned whine.

 

“Shh, shh, don’t worry, buddy. I’ll be right back.” Latching the door carefully behind her, Judy dropped the clothing she still held next to the other fox. “Finnick, I need to talk to the chief. Do you think you can get Nick to put his pants back on?”

 

“Prob’ly not, but the tuna melt in my pocket says I got a bargaining chip.” Grin still bigger than his ears, the smaller vulpine strolled in to take her place on Wilde-wrangling duty.

 

Dr. Sharpe, clipboard and pencil at the ready, failed to appear less than scientifically enthralled.

 

With a jerk of Bogo’s head, they retreated to a small waiting area with a water cooler, a coffee pot, and a door. The buffalo was particularly grateful for the privacy afforded by the latter as they sat down, Judy thankfully able to ease into a chair meant for a mammal of her size rather than strain her leg jumping for a larger one.

 

“Clawhauser sent this for you. Along with his best wishes.”

 

Judy accepted the paper bag curiously. As she opened it, her ears sprang up in delight. “Carrot cake donut holes! Ben’s so sweet. Please thank him for me.”

 

“You should thank him yourself.”

 

As if she’d been too preoccupied with the fox to bother with feeding herself yet that day (and it was entirely possible she had been), Judy’s cheeks pudged around the donut hole she’d inhaled. Her ears sank once more as she chewed and swallowed thoughtfully. “You don’t think it would be too awkward if I showed up at the station?”

 

“Oh, not as much as you might think.”  Bogo remembered Clawhauser’s enthusiastic happy dance that morning when he’d been told to pull Judy’s file out of the archives, and resolutely did not smile. “There’s something I want to discuss, Hopps. This was found in your files when you left the force.” Cracking open the folder, he handed her a slightly crumpled sheet of paper.

 

Judy’s ears sank even further as she recognized the signature. “Oh… I thought I threw this away.”

 

“I didn’t realize Mr. Wilde was interested in the Police Academy.”

 

The bunny cradled the donut sack almost sadly as she studied the application. “He was. Right after Lionheart’s arrest, we talked about it. A little.”

 

“We could scan that over there this afternoon,” he offered casually. “Perhaps with a letter of recommendation.” Quick, businesslike, offhand. That was the ticket.

 

Judy’s eyes rose slowly to meet his own. “You’d do that, Chief? Nick’s a fox.”

 

“And you’re a rabbit. And when you were assigned to this precinct, I…” Well. He’d known he would have to say it eventually, and he was buffalo enough to admit it. “I made a mistake. I took what I knew about rabbits and dismissed you without a chance.” Bogo scratched awkwardly behind one horn. “It’s a mistake I will endeavor not to repeat.”

 

“Chief, that would be—well, wow, it’d be wonderful, but—I don’t even know if Nick is still interested. This was weeks ago and we… I said something really stupid, and we argued. Now that I’m not even on the force—”

 

“Which brings me to my next point.” From the folder, he pulled a second sheet of paper. From the pocket of his uniform shirt, he pulled a tiny golden pin.

 

Judy’s mouth, wringed with a dusting of donut crumbs, fell open. “My badge.”

 

“And an intent to return to active duty authorization. Sign on the ex and we’ll have you back on the roster as soon as your leg’s fit.”

 

“But… Chief, I…”

 

“Come on, Hopps. Are you really going to be content to spend the rest of your life surrounded by carrots? When you fall off the wagon you get back on and try again, that’s what my father always said.” He held paper and badge a little closer to her slack paws. “Also, please don’t make me beg. Clawhauser might literally resign if I come back without you.”

 

Finally, after what seemed an age, she reached for the badge. And wrapped her arms around Bogo’s wrist instead, the best hug a bunny could give a buffalo. “Thank you, Chief. Thank you so much. I promise you won’t regret it!”

 

Somehow, as he haltingly patted her back with the tips of his fingers, Bogo didn’t doubt that one bit.

 

Obviously he was going soft. But perhaps, just perhaps, a little softness wasn’t quite as bad as he’d once feared.

 

~ the end ~


End file.
